Beyond the South End

 

 

 

 

 

Maine Expressions…Mainespeak

 

Purchase Street School in Rockland’s South End is where I spoke “Mainespeak” with my friends often against the wishes of our teachers. The picture is from the Penobscot Museum. The building no longer exists.

 

 

When I come across yet one more list of Maine sayings, idioms, and the like, I always check out the list for discrepancies, untruths and plain out and out guesses. Cousin Mary Sue Hilton Weeks, of the Hilton Homestead, brought this latest list to my attention recently. It comes from a site called Matador Network. I don’t see the author listed but I suspect they are not from Maine originally; not Maineiacs so to speak; and their first language is not “Mainespeak” as some of us call the Maine way of speaking.

I give you therefore, the list on Matador and add some comments of my own along the way. I will also then add some expressions and words I’ve known in my life as a kid in Maine. The list first.

1. Mainers don’t ask “what are you doing?”…they say “Chuppta?”

2. Maine weather doesn’t get “windy”…it gets “breezed up.”

Never heard of this expression, myself. More than likely I’ve heard, “storm coming” or “bad weather ahead.”

3. Things don’t “break” in Maine…they get “stove up.”

4. Mainers don’t eat until “full”…they get “mugup.”

Never heard this one either. I have heard, “I’m full up to my eyebrows.”

5. Maine roads are never “icy” or “slippery”…they’re “greasy.”

They are? Roads get “greasy” on the interstates near big cities from the oil that always sits on the roads which gets greasy when it rains.

6. Mainers don’t “go to the country”…they “go out in the willie-wacks.”

More than likely they go out to the “boomdocks.”

7. Mainers don’t say someone is “flamboyant” or “eccentric”…they say they’re “a rig.”

I’ve also heard: “Ain’t she a riggin?” or more than likely “Ain’t she a pissah!”

8. Mainers don’t take their boots off in the “foyer”…they use the “dooryard.

True, or in the mudroom which many Maine homes have.

9. Mainers don’t have “midnight snacks”…they have “bed lunches.”

Never heard this at all.

10. Mainers don’t drive small distances…they go “up the road apiece.”

I love the Bert and I story that ends: “Come to think of it, you caint git thaya frum heya.”

11. Mainers don’t say “I don’t know”…they say “hard tellin’ not knowin’.”

12. Mainers don’t “get stuck” or “get in trouble”…they “get in a gaum.”

Never heard this either. Gaum to me means someone is “gaummie” or clumsy.

13 Mainers don’t put things “in the basement”…they go “down cellar.”

My mother used to say, when we asked her where something was, “Down cellar behind the pork barrel.”

14. Mainers don’t take out the “trash”…they deal with the “culch.”

The what?

15. Mainers don’t say “that was good”…they say it was the “finest kind.”

Or again it is still appropriate to say “It’s a pissah!”

16. Mainers don’t move things in small amounts…they move them “just a dite.”

17. Mainers don’t say “I lost it”…they say “it’s down cellar behind the axe.”

No…didn’t you listen? Pork barrel!

18. Mainers don’t “get drunk”…they “catch a buzz on.”

Or “get a buzz on.”

19. Mainers don’t get “sick”…they get “pekid.”

Or sometimes “puny.”

20. Mainers don’t “steal”…they “kife.”

21. Mainers don’t say something’s “awesome”…they say it’s “savage.”

No, It’s “wicked good.”

22. Mainers don’t “hurry”…they “book it.”

23. Mainers don’t say “that’s cute”…they say “that’s cunnin’.”

24. Maine doesn’t have “tourists”…only “flatlanders.”

Or what we used to call them “summer complaints” because they would come to Maine on vacation, complain all the while they were there, but yet they’d come back again the next year.

25. Mainers don’t become “senior citizens”…they become “old timers.”

Some more of my favorites are:

“Good gravy Marie” or “Well, I nevah” when something exasperates you.

“It don’t amount to a pee hole in the snow.” I’ll let you southerners figure that one out.

The three meals in Maine include: Breakfast, Dinner, and Suppah.

Remember that in Mainespeak “er” becomes “ay” so that you get, for instance, “theya” instead of “their” or “there.” If you remember that one little thing, even you can speak Mainespeak.

Although I’ve lived in Georgia whoo these many years, I’ve never lost my ability to speak my native language of Mainespeak. I may have picked up some southern phrases and idioms, but I remain for the most part true to my roots in Maine.

I’ve written about the Maine language from time to time in this space. If you’d like to read more on this subject see the archives for September 2011. “Bad Maine Accents.”

 

Enjoy this video I found while I was doing this blog. Better yet, show it to someone who has never been to Maine. Remember vacation time is coming. Come on up and try out your own Mainespeak on us natives.

 

And if you need a refresher in Mainespeak watch an episode of “Downeast Dickering” which you can find on YouTube.  Thanks for listening.